The Man Who Fell to Earth

SYNOPSIS

Thomas Jerome Newton is more human than most. That is, if you even consider him one at all. Despite his striking resemblance to humans, he is not of this planet. You may reason that based on his intellectual acuity, for his ideas transcend even those of any learned man who walks the Earth. But if he’s not of this planet, then why is he here?
       Like Icarus plummeting from the sky, Newton’s rocket crash landed in the inconspicuous town of Haneyville, Kentucky, where he found himself alone with no food, no money, and no way back home. And home — the planet Anthea — is a long, long way from Kentucky. But this interplanetary excursion was all a part of the plan, one that he and his people set in motion many years before.
       In only two months’ time he would secure hundreds of patents, providing him the impetus for taking the technology world by storm. In five years’ time his company W.E. Corp would become ubiquitous, thanks to his innovation and his corporate attorney’s enterprising know-how. Financial solidity had found him, and he had found the missing piece that would cement his plan.
       But with great success comes great suspicion. For what man from this planet could invent, license, and innovate on such a grand scale in record-breaking time without being noticed? Though, more to the point…who else but Thomas Jerome Newton? The extra-terrestrial with more at stake on behalf of humanity than anyone would ever know.
       Drawing heavily from the Cold War era of the late 1950s, Walter Tevis’s The Man Who Fell to Earth is a frightening parable about the inevitability of our demise and our own hubris in ignoring the warning signs, even those traveling light years to reach us. It may have been published in 1963 when the end-of-times rhetoric was at its peak, but are we any safer now than we were then? Doomsday is still just a button smash away.
       The novel also illustrates that sometimes the best qualities humanity has to offer can only be found in the most alien among us. Empathy can seamlessly transfer from one species to another even in a hedonistic world. And as the unbeknownst Virgil to our Dante, Newton will be our guide through this debauched, despondent, and derelict purview, leaving us to wonder who comes off the worse for wear: humanity or Newton himself?
       This new edition of The Man Who Fell to Earth features a new introduction by Justin Humphreys, a reprinted introduction by Norman Spinrad, a reprinted interview with Walter Tevis, a new dustjacket, frontispiece, and four interior color illustrations by Lisa Desimini, and four black & white illustrations by Stanislav Dikolenko.

EDITION INFORMATION

• The original 1963 Gold Medal text.
• Introductions by Justin Humphreys and Norman Spinrad.
• Interview with Walter Tevis.
• Color artwork and dustjacket by Lisa Desimini.
• Black & white artwork by Stanislav Dikolenko.
• Gallery of covers from previous editions of the novel.
• Limited to 500 signed and numbered copies and 75 unsigned copies.
• Signed by Lisa Desimini and Justin Humphreys.
• Clothbound with top-edge stain and front-board pastedown image.
• Fully cloth bound, dustjacket, printed endpapers, ribbon marker, head and tail bands.
• Book size 5½ × 8¾ inches.
• Number of pages: 288.
• Published January 2023.
• ISBN 978-1-61347-290-3.